Wagatha Christie drama star Chanel Cresswell thinks she’d make as good a detective as Coleen Rooney-Josh Stephenson-Entertainment – Metro

Chanel Cresswell (Picture: Supplied)

Actress Chanel Cresswell, 32, on playing Coleen Rooney, becoming a detective and how Stephen Graham helped her Scouse accent.

You play Coleen Rooney in Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama, which tells the story of the Wagatha Christie trial. What do you remember about it when the story first broke?

I saw it cropping up everywhere but, weirdly, it’s not something I followed. I don’t know why, I kind of live in the middle of nowhere. But I didn’t think it’d be as big as it has been.

Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy outside court (Pictures: WireImage/Rex/Shutterstock)

You’re a dead ringer for Coleen. Were you confident about getting the part?

Everyone else was. My friends in the acting world were like, ‘I knew when I read about it that you was gonna get Coleen!’ Everyone just knew. It’s like when you’ve left a boyfriend and everyone says, ‘You should have never gone out with him’ and you think, ‘I wish you’d have told me that’. It felt like that. Although somebody rang me up and was like, ‘Who are you playing?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I don’t look anything like Vardy so I’m not playing her.’

Chanel Cresswell, left, as Coleen Rooney, alongside Michael Sheen, Natalia Tena as Rebekah Vardy and Simon Coury (Picture: Marcell Piti)

Was the Scouse accent easy to get to grips with?

With accents it’s one thing to do them but when you’re playing somebody else you’ve got an accent and you’ve got their mannerisms to put on top of that and their tones in the way they talk. It’s like a song and everyone’s got their own song, so I had to learn what Coleen’s was.

Funnily enough, Stephen Graham [her This Is England co-star] is Liverpudlian, so I kept going through our voice notes and hearing his voice to get a feel for the accent. That was quite funny.

Chanel perfected her accent listening to This Is England co-star Stephen Graham (Picture: Getty)

The show is a situational drama so all the dialogue is verbatim from court transcripts. Were you shocked reading them?

I read it when I was on the plane and when I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. How Coleen had dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. She had it all planned out and was clever about how she went around trying to find out who she thought had done this.

Chanel as Coleen (Picture: Marcell Piti)

Coleen had broken her foot and turned up to the trial in a large boot. Ever broken anything?

I’ve never broke a bone. Touch wood. The boot was quite funny because I wore it on the first day in the courtroom and I had one scene where I had to wander up to the stand and everyone was laughing because I was hobbling around. When I took the boot off, I started having pins and needles up my leg – it was bizarre. It took a while for my leg to go back to normal because it was in a certain position all day.

Michael in action as Coleen’s barrister David Sherborne QC (Picture: Marcell Piti)

Michael Sheen plays your lawyer. Is he a sweetheart on set?

Oh, yeah, Michael is great. He’s got some great stories – he was sat behind me the whole time. If we had a quick five minutes and he didn’t have a heavy day, I’d always turn around and be like, ‘Would you rather have a butterfly on the end of your nose for the rest of the day or a monkey on your back?’ I would ask him crazy questions like that and it was really fun. He’s such a pro.

Coleen is now the country’s favourite amateur detective. Do you think you’d make a good sleuth?

Definitely. I will get to the bottom of anything very quickly. I have to be really, really bothered about something to dig deep and delve into it and have a look. But, yeah, I think we’re very similar in that sense.

More: Sixty Seconds

The trial is due to social media. What do you think about it?

I’m not massive on social media. I try to do a little bit to stay involved but I’m not hell-bent on it. All these social platforms, they’re great in some ways and they’re poisonous in others. I find it bizarre how people can post anything and not be governed.

I think Instagram, Facebook and Twitter have a responsibility to take down things that aren’t appropriate and aren’t kind to people. They don’t take responsibility for the content that’s on there. They have a massive responsibility for people’s wellbeing and mental health.

England v USA at the World Cup – divided loyalties for Chanel (Picture: Getty)

Given you’re playing a wag… are you a football fan?

I do watch football. I had my American family here and so I hosted for the World Cup match last month and decorated my house in American and English bunting, so I like to get in the spirit.

You’re best known for the wonderful This Is England. Do you look back on it with pride?

Funnily enough, Shane [Meadows, writer and director] texted me last night. All of us feel like we’ve grown up together. They are like family, really. We voice-note each other and check in on a big group chat and everyone’s really supportive.

I look back on that and it’s probably one of my proudest achievements. Those storylines and stories we were telling aren’t easy. Sometimes it makes me quite sad that it’s over. We keep pressuring Shane to make another one.

He’s got more in him, surely?

Yeah, come on, Shane – we’re getting older. You need to hurry up!

Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama starts tonight at 9pm on Channel 4

MORE : Coleen Rooney ‘delighted’ with Wagatha TV drama and wants ‘what actually happened’ to be shown

MORE : Michael Sheen admits ‘fascination’ with Wagatha Christie trial: ‘It’s working-class young women being shouted at by posh men’

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